Wildlife refuges can provide shovel-ready green jobs

20,000 jobs in 90 days for a billion dollars doing what has needed to be done for decades-

A proposal from Defenders of Wildlife.

* $443 million for removing non-native, invasive species and restoring native habitat: 5,644 jobs

* $243 million for dramatically improving the energy efficiency of existing facilities: 5,103 jobs

* $201 million for new “green” construction of visitor centers, environmental education and equipment storage facilities: 5,025 jobs

* $60 million for increasing renewable energy capacity, such as tapping solar, wind and geothermal energy to power refuge facilities: 1,260 jobs

20 thoughts on “Wildlife refuges can provide shovel-ready green jobs

  1. At many refuges across the country (I’m most familiar with those in the East, such as Bombay Hook in Delaware), hundreds of acres are farmed yearly, ostensibly to provide food for waterfowl.

  2. if my math is correct thats about a billion dollars for 20,000 jobs, its so good to see our government isn’t wasting any money, i would hate to morgage my grandkids future, maybe when china owns the us it will improve set aside the whole country to pacify its own envro communty. I think I’m going to be sick, I guess the bumber stickers where right, change its all your going to have left

  3. Outsider,

    The economy has lost about 4-million jobs. Some economists say 8-million jobs need to be created.

    The stimulus package looks to be about 800-billion dollars.

    If you multiply 20,000 by 800, that equals 16,000,000 — 16-million jobs. So this doesn’t make me sick. If Defender’s figures on the number of jobs created are right, their proposal is an excellent job creator.

  4. Outsider,

    I did it to find out how many jobs would be created if every other billion dollars in the 800-billion dollar stimulus package created as many jobs as in this 1-billion dollar proposal.

    So the result was 16,000,000. That is quite a bit more than Obama says the total package will create, indicating that this proposal is a relatively good job creator.

  5. This is good news. Maybe it can be expanded to the other federal properties, particularly the parks. For reasons I won’t elaborate on I have to give props to fellow Kentuckian A.J. – even if she is a U. of Kentucky. 🙂

  6. ralph, thats great logic, do you want to buy a bridge I’ve got or maybe some ocean front property 😉

    I’m not trying to be mean but this spend spend spend and then spin it to look good is going to bite us in the butt. The other thing that I would like to point out is how many of these “jobs” are created in the private sector? From what I’ve seen they are just government payouts, that WE the tax payers are going to be paying for. The government doesn’t create wealth all it can do if take it in the form of taxes, or print more of it.

  7. Outsider,

    I think you’ll agree that the idea behind the stimulus is to create a sudden flow of income to get the economy going in the private sector.

    The fact that these government paid jobs are temporary, then is a good thing. As the economy picks up, permanent jobs will be created in the private sector, although what they will be can only be speculation at this point.

    Meanwhile and hopefully some long neglected public goods will have been created, such as repair of a decaying infrastructure.

  8. “I’m not trying to be mean but this spend spend spend and then spin it to look good is going to bite us in the butt.”

    The way I see it, this particular proposal appears to be a pretty good return on investment–assuming, of course, that the estimated # of jobs created is correct. To say the proposal is bad because its big government–which is essentially what you’re saying–is nothing more than sour grapes. We got 8 years of tax cuts and deregulation and look where it has got us. Time for a change.

    I believe it was Ben Franklin that said “…insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” Time for change.

  9. JB it was accutally Albert Einstein who said that. The tax cuts in the last eight years are only thing that keep us from going completly belley up. I will bash on the past addmin and congress for two things, one they spent like drunking sailors, no offense to any sailors. They refused to heed any warnings that were voiced, exp, Barny we need bigger fanie and freddy macs Frank, the idea that everyone has the right to own a home regardless of abilty to pay the morgages, I saw a short blurb on one of the cable shows where a guy with 4 yes thats FOUR friking homes was complaining about how he needed a bail out. This genious had bought these FOUR home in CA with the idea of refinanceing them took money out and then was going to flip them for a quick buck, now he is crying about how hes going to lose his home, oh boo hoo let the frikin looser use the money he tookout on his refi to go live in a van down by the river. But instead we are going to bail him and all the others like him out, spend like drunkin sailors, and then have to raise taxes to cover this spending, and the end result will be more jobs shipped overseas, and more small business forced out and then more people on the govs payroll, leading to the collaps of our gov. I guess at least the only bright side of the who dam mess is I am fairly well armed so at least I can protect my little part of the pie, really feel sorry for the poor smuck that thinks he has a right to my stockpile.

  10. “I guess at least the only bright side of the who dam mess is I am fairly well armed so at least I can protect my little part of the pie, really feel sorry for the poor smuck that thinks he has a right to my stockpile.”

    Guns and taxes, eh? The Supreme Court recently ruled that you (you individually, as opposed to the prior collective interpretation) have a right to own a gun, so stop worrying. On the issue of taxes, it is likely that you only need to worry if you’re rich, in which case, I have little sympathy for you.

  11. Yes JB all rich people suck, all they do is provide capital investment so other people can have jobs, man I hate them too 😉

  12. This might sum up my feelings on the whole bail out.

    Back in 1990, the government seized the Mustang Ranch brothel in Nevada for tax evasion and, as required by law, tried to run it. They failed and it closed. Now we are trusting the economy of our country, and our banking system to the same nit-wits who couldn’t make money running a whore house and selling whiskey

  13. “Yes JB all rich people suck, all they do is provide capital investment so other people can have jobs, man I hate them too”

    Ha! You might add: lobby (i.e. bribe) their Republican legislators to ensure that capitol gains stay low and they can continue to grow richer off the backs of people that actually work for a living.

    FYI: I don’t “hate” rich people (never said I did), I just lack sympathy for them. I think you’ll agree there’s a big difference!

  14. Capitol gains is only one of many types of income, most income falls into ordinary income types. Capitol gains only applys on investments of one year or longer to insure capitol says in the system so it can provide jobs the those who want them

  15. “so it can provide jobs the those who want them”

    Spin, spin, and more spin. Poor people don’t pay Capitol gains (because they generally don’t have any), the rich lobby to keep this tax very low, which gives them an unfair advantage; thus, the rich get richer, and the poor get more numerous.

  16. “the rich lobby to keep this tax very low, which gives them an unfair advantage; thus, the rich get richer AND MORE NUMEROUS…

    Fixed it for you JB

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